XDA News Articles

Our devs spend countless hours and tons of blood, sweat, and tears in the process of gathering information and knowledge so that they can make our devices better. This is no easy task as you have to remember that manufacturers don't always provide the documentation required to do half of the things that we normally do on our phones and tablets. In many rare occasions, the tech representatives from the manufacturers will have nothing themselves. So, where does one go...

It seems that most people cannot make their minds about what to run on their devices. Some like roms that are stable and reliable even if it means going back a version or 2. Others lean towards the bleeding edge that comes out almost daily in this site. If you are among these poor souls, you should definitely check out the mod created by XDA member nobodyAtall for the Sony Ericsson x10 Mini. This will allow people using CWM to boot...

By this point in time, if you have been a member of this site for longer than a couple of years, you have witnessed rather complicated processes such as rooting and flashing, turned into easy 1 click procedures. These are normally fool proof and will let you get the most out of your devices while saving you a few hours of reading. However, there is always a risk of bricking your device. This is a time for you to sit...

We hadn't added anything in a while, so after much deliberation and tons of requests, we have decided to give LG Optimus Black owners a little spot to play, hack, develop, and do everything that is normally done on XDA. The device seems a bit on the medium to low end side, considering some of the other higher end devices that LG has been putting out lately. However, it still packs quite a punch with a 1 GHz OMAP 3630...

Since the introduction of Dance Dance Revolution in 1998, variations of the popular dance game have made their way across several contries. From large platforms found only in video arcades, to the smallest of platforms, maneuvered with only your fingers. XDA member TheOneBD has released his rendition of the game, an Android version called Neverending Dance of Happiness. This free addictive-but-simple game meshes music, dance and making new friends to create something simply funky – and totally fun! Players will have to prove they’ve got rhythm to whisk their...

As Android owner's, we are fortunate to have choices to feed our addictions; new games become available for our devices almost daily. XDA member cubewalker has brought us yet another game to satisfy our needs. With its 5 different game modes to choose from, Color Link will have you jonesing for more. There are 7x9 colorful squares on the board and players swap tiles of the same shape to match colors and clear them. Simple rule but hard to master! There are 5...

For those of you who haven't made the leap to Gingerbread, for whatever reason but would really like to have WiFi calling on your Android device, check out XDA Senior Member Segnaro's latest work. The XDA member, after spending many hours trying to get WiFi calling working on the Samsung Vibrant running Android 2.2.1 has finally succeeded! You'll need to flash using CWM, and note that the mod was tested on the BiWinning 3.0 ROM. The XDA member notes that...

You will likely remember this app from a few weeks ago. Analytix for Google Analytics is a creation of XDA member Folkert, who was not happy about the stats tracking tools available for website traffic. The app has gone a few updates since the last time we wrote about it, but the most significant one is that you are now able to view your stats and manage your site through your Honeycomb powered Android tablet. Considering the rising success of these...

It is amazing how certain apps are restricted to either certain services or devices. It isn't a matter of device compatibility, but rather about arbitrary (and often pointless) restrictions regarding the usage of said app. This was the case for the BBC iPlayer app for Android devices. This app lets you watch your favorite UK shows from your mobile. However, this app was limited to being used via WiFi. However, XDA moderator and recognized developer pulser_g2 decided that this restriction made...

Flashing RUU tools for our devices have been a popular object of development since the early days of Windows Mobile. Since then, many carriers and manufacturers have bundled these as update packages to send to their customers every time they want to send a new set of updates to users, or at least the ones that prefer not to use OTA's. Among RUU's, there are custom ones that can be used for several other purposes. In the case of the...

Our devs have come up with very innovative ways of dealing with internal storage issues in Android. The most prevalent one always involves dealing with certain apps that just sit in our devices for no apparent reason, whether it is bloatware preinstalled by carriers or manufacturers or simply apps that we install that are just too large. One solution is to move these apps to the external storage. The problem is that there are apps that cannot be moved. Thanks...

We are always looking for newer cooler, faster, and better performing apps for our devices. Some of the stock apps (well, really most of them) lack the ability to undergo customization or are just flat out slow. One such category that happens to be suffering from this on Android devices is the dialer department. There are some replacements out there, but they several are simply skinned versions of stock dialers. Well, now thanks to XDA member mozarcik__, there is a new...

If you just got your Droid Charge and this is in fact your first fling with Samsung devices, there is a very important program that you will need to become familiar with if you were to try any of the fixes posted in this site. Odin, named after the Nordic God, is essentially a RUU for most Samsung Galaxy devices. Simply put, Odin will allow you to flash tar images to your Android devices. One very useful application of this...

Porting is the ultimate frontier in the development world. This involves getting device A to run something designed to work on device B and make it work just like in device A. This is not to be confused with emulation, which involves running code designed for some device inside a program that resembles the running environment for said code. Our devs have gotten miracles done when it comes to porting, starting with the initial ports of Windows Mobile 2005 on...

It looks like the IT professionals in our community have been getting gifts all week, courtesy of our devs. There have been a few network tools released lately that are good tools if your job involves having to ensure the proper functionality of a network. In the case of this new app created by XDA member mapeapps, not only will IT people benefit from this but regular users as well because the app will allow you to keep tabs data usage...

After all the ports from SDK, all the themes and skins to resemble it, one would think that the Honeycomb interface (and really the overall OS) is slowly taking the world of Android by storm. with this in mind, many devs are working tirelessly to get a much more similar feeling in devices that cannot support the tablet-oriented OS. However, XDA member IntelSoftApps brings us a step closer to getting the full HC experience on Android devices sporting 2.0 and up....

One of the most annoying issues that has pestered the HTC EVO 4G for a long time is the one known as the "Wake Lock", which is an issue that seemingly keeps your phone wide awake even though you put it to sleep. This seemingly innocent issue drains your battery like crazy. This is not rom type specific, which means that you will get it regardless of you being on a Sense rom or an AOSP rom. There have been...

For all you TouchWiz Launcher fans, XDA member's Fr4gg0r & Swiftwork have developed a modified version that works with "Every device with armv7 processor and froyo or higher." Some of the great features included in this modified version of TW include: App Drawer Number of apps per page Number of app columns Sort order (normal/alphabetical, alphabetical will be forced after reboot/changing from normal to alphabetical) Enable/disable app backdrops Enable/disable 3D effect for backdrops Badge Counter enable/disable unread g-mail counter (specify accounts to show counter for) enable/disable...

The integration of GPS into our mobile devices was a huge technological leap, completely shattering the boundaries of what a cell phone was capable of. However, this wonderful feature is not great when we don't really know if it is truly working or not. You may be getting an approximate location from your mobile connection and your GPS may have no clue where you are actually located. So, how can you tell if you have a few satellites locked on...

There are several games out there from our childhood and past that we used to play without computers and with other family members and friends. Well, thanks to the efforts of XDA member BootsSiR, we can have one of these games back and readily available in our Android devices. In Naval Wars Multiplayer, your only objective is to try and sink your opponent's ships, which are all placed in a grid type board, one that you cannot see. You will have...

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